Search form

Search form

Office politics are about resolving conflict and learning to work together, but if you seek merely to triumph over co-workers, the strategy will backfire, Scot Herrick writes. "If your belief about your work is that you must win and everyone else loses, you will always be on the wrong side of getting to what you want out of work," he writes.

Related Summaries

To get off on the right foot when you start your dream job, first meet with your manager and make sure you know how your job affects others, Scot Herrick writes. "Without understanding these relationships, you'll always be ignoring some important input to your work, ticking your coworkers off for not getting what they need from you completed and have customers wonder why you were picked for this dream job in the first place," he writes.

Working for an incompetent manager can be a challenge, but don't make the mistake of assuming they're weak in all areas, Scot Herrick writes. Instead, identify their problem areas and then find ways to work around them, he writes.

If you worked for a company that has failed, you can't ignore the issue in an interview, Scot Herrick writes. Acknowledge the tie, he writes, but emphasize what you learned from the experience and distance yourself whenever you can.

Office politics are about resolving conflict and learning to work together, but if you seek merely to triumph over co-workers, the strategy will backfire, Scot Herrick writes. "If your belief about your work is that you must win and everyone else loses, you will always be on the wrong side of getting to what you want out of work," he writes.

"What people do you find it hard to work with?" is a tricky interview question to answer well, because it seems to call for negativity, Scot Herrick writes. Don't succumb to the temptation, he advises: Instead of criticizing individual co-workers, point to situations that were difficult and explain how you overcame them. Use the "CAR" model to explain the context, actions and results involved, and be sure to put the focus on the resolution.